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Coloring Long, Thick Hair: My Sister's Experience with eSalon

My sister and I have very similar hair, but while mine is just below my shoulders, my sister's is extremely long. Unlike me, she's also not colored in a long time, so the top half is natural medium brown and the bottom half is a light rusty red color.

With Kailee about to graduate from college, I offered to do her hair with color from eSalon. We uploaded a couple of photos and worked with one of eSalon's super helpful color specialists who suggested a demi-permanent color that would bring my sister to an overall natural warm brown which is easy to maintain as she goes off to start her post-college career.

the color kit from eSalon
Kailee needed more product than I would need, so eSalon sent a complementary second bottle to cover all her hair. It's a nice perk just for the first time you order, so you can be sure to get complete coverage the first time rather than ordering a bottle and later realizing you need two.

opening the eSalon kit

all the essentials in one box
I ordered a kit to help us with Kailee's first eSalon experience, so we had clips, a mixing bowl and brush, and a timer to make sure we get as close to a professional color application as possible.

I don't have a lot of full length pictures of Kailee right before we colored, but you can see below, she had uneven, grown out color, which meant we couldn't just squeeze a bottle on and hope for the best.
  

eSalon's team anticipated we'd need to take extra care when coloring Kailee's hair and provided thorough step-by-step directions, which I was very careful to read this time. We were given the process and the exact timings to use, even when to begin mixing the second bottle in anticipation of coloring the ends. They left nothing to chance so I was feeling confident we'd have an even result.


I carefully clipped up Kailee's hair into several sections. She has so much hair, I might have been better ordering a second set of clips, but we managed just fine. It took a while to cover the roots and part line because we were using the brush and working with small sections, then she waited patiently for a bit before we worked through the ends and rest of the hair. You'll see above, we used an old towel to protect her shirt. Like most hair color, when you have long hair, you're likely to get it on your shirt or shoulders if you don't cover up.


When all the color was worked into her hair, Kailee waited a bit, relying on the eSalon timer to remind her to rinse in a few minutes. When it was time to rinse, I added some water to the applicator bottle so Kailee could do a color rinse. Rinsing seemed to go well and didn't take too long. She let her hair air dry that day. I had to leave before her hair was dry, so I had to wait a few days to see the final result.

A few days later, it was time for graduation. My first time seeing Kailee's hair dry after we colored it was at the recessional, in her cap and grown. I loved the warmth that is especially noticeable in the sun. Her hair felt soft and looked shiny. When I asked how she styled it that day, she said she didn't do anything special. That's how she woke up.


After graduation, we went on a little house hunting trip and one night she let me style her hair like Elsa from the Frozen movie. Her hair texture was really soft and it was easy to comb out the knots after a few days of running around looking at apartments.


You can see from the back, how beautiful this shade of brown is and how smooth and shiny her hair is. This is without product. I love the color on her, which looks very natural. I suspect she won't have trouble with noticeable roots and it will be easy to maintain the color by ordering a new kit every 8 weeks or so.


Kailee's hair came out beautiful. Our mom likes it so much, she's ready to make some time to try eSalon herself. I'll post on that experience in a few weeks.

Want to know more about my eSalon experience? Here's what happened when I visited eSalon headquarters and had my hair done by one of their talented colorists.

Want to try eSalon? Let me refer you and get $10 off your first order. Subscribe to their service and your first order is just $9.95 plus shipping!

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